Cancer treatment systems that use an MRI device and a beam generator are known in the art. A number of existing treatment systems damage healthy tissue surrounding the cancerous tissue being treated. The beam processor and related systems described herein improve existing cancer treatment systems by, among other things, minimizing damage to the healthy tissue in the area surrounding the cancerous tissue being treated and provides greater assurance that the target tissue is killed. Such a system is disclosed in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/242,577 (“the '577 patent application”), filed on Sep. 30, 2008, and directed to a “Photonic Based Non-Invasive Surgery System That Includes Automated Cell Control and Eradication Via Pre-Calculated Feed-Forward Control Plus Image Feedback Control For Targeted Energy Delivery”; the contents of the '577 patent application are incorporated herein by reference and include a common inventor in Mr. Oosting.
A beam generator used in such a non-invasive system can include any source of x-ray beams such as linear accelerators and x-ray tubes. A problem with using x-ray beams is that they are not easily focused, and x-ray sources produce diverging x-ray beams that spread with the square of the distance from the source beam generator. Therefore, there is a need for beam processors that focus highly coherent and collimated x-ray beams on cancerous target cells with sufficient flux to destroy the cancerous cells.